Audits of Chinese Plants Set to Export Cooked Poultry to U.S.

After the USDA announced that they were going to let Chinese facilities export processed poultry to the U.S., Food & Water Watch asked to see copies of the audit reports, which were not released. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) posted the audits last Friday, and there are some serious issues in those plants.

In the Qingdao Nine-Alliance Group, Shandong, auditors saw long electrical cords bundled with pieces of wire and repaired with electrical tape that made them difficult to clean. An air-line water trap was not closed and sealed, so its contents sprayed over the area. More problems with electrical cords were found in Zhueheng Waimao Co., Ltd/Shandong Delicate Food Co., Ltd, Zhueheng, Shandong, and at Weifang Legang Food Co. in Shandong, there were structural deficiencies that “included accumulation of residue on the outer surfaces of a tumbler in the raw product area and coils of electrical cords on workstation lamps in the cooked product area.”

The problems were corrected after they were identified. But Food & Water Watch is still concerned about the safety of chicken processed in China, especially since those plants will not be inspected again for months or years, and there will not be on-site USDA inspectors in the facilities. And the processed chicken will have no label telling consumers where it came from.